Disclaimer: All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.
Story Title: Time For A Drink
Chapter Title: Loss's Aftermath
Story Word Count: 3,364
Chapter Word Count: 1,228
Characters: Manjoume Chosaku, Manjoume Shoji
Genres: Family
Challenge: 5drunkfics: Claim: Manjoume Chosaku, Manjoume Shoji: prompt #5, mistakes
Rated: PG-13
Notes: Please note that this story presents the older Manjoume brothers as NOT being abusive evil bastards who rape and beat their younger brother twice a day and three times on Sundays. If Chosaku and Shoji being presented as human beings and not vehicles for their younger brother's angst and woe displeases you, click your nearest back button NOW. This takes place shortly after the school duel, once Chosaku and Shoji get home. While I normally refer to Manjoume Jun as 'Manjoume', because this point of view is his brothers, I will refer to him as 'Jun'. Because that's what they call him.
Summary: Sometimes, you just really, really need to have a good stiff drink. Five times Chosaku and Shoji needed one.
Drinks. As much as possible. Chosaku stalked towards the liquor cabinet, looking for something, anything, that would take away the sting of defeat. How could the Manjoume family have been defeated? This was something out of a bad dream. There was no way it could be anything else.
"He lost." Shoji spat the words out moments after taking some of the finest wine that the cabinet had to offer in. "Jun lost."
Chosaku snarled wordlessly as he drained his own wine glass. "Don't you think I noticed that? What did he think he was doing?"
"Wanting to do it himself?" Shoji hissed and shook his head. "If he had used the deck we gave him before he left…or the one that we gave him now…that wouldn't have happened!"
The elder brother glared briefly at his younger. "Do you think I don't know that? I was there, Shoji."
He wanted to drink more. He wanted to get as drunk as he possibly could. They'd both taken several days off from work to not just view this duel, but in anticipation of celebrating with Jun afterwards. Yes, he'd let them down to a degree by running away from Duel Academia, but if he had won this school duel, then all would have been forgiven.
That will never happen now, he snarled to himself. We went to so much trouble and he threw it all away!
"I thought the Manjoume Group meant something to Jun," he muttered. He wanted to do something. He wanted to hurt something, or someone. He wanted to prove to Jun how stupid that he had been not to listen to them.
At the moment, he was completely blank on what that might be. There would be something, he just had to think of it. For now, he just wanted to be furious. He paced back and forth, then slammed his fist into the wall.
"I thought he knew better! What's been going on with him since he went there? He loses not just to an Osiris Red, twice, but to a Ra Yellow as well! He's becoming a loser! A dropout! A washout!" He slammed his fist once again, ignoring the pain that rocketed up to his shoulder. The drink made that much easier to do.
Shoji fixed himself another drink. He hadn't been counting how many of them he'd had since they'd arrived back home. What did it matter? The more the merrier tonight. "We did something wrong, somewhere, in raising him." That was the only possible reason. "Perhaps if mother and father were here…"
"They trusted us to raise him properly." Chosaku declared. "And we did. It's not our fault that he's lost his mind and his ability to win duels! Or that he decided the only answer to that was running away! We should have brought him home as soon as we found out what was going on!"
They'd known where he was the whole time, of course. Principal Samejima had informed them that their brother had left the school, and since he'd been in a Manjoume-group issued boat, it had been easy for them to track him.
Chosaku sipped at his current drink and tried to think beyond the slow, pleasant haze that had begun to envelop his thoughts. It wasn't easy at the moment, and he didn't think he really wanted to think much, now that he thought about it. It would feel so much better if he just relaxed and let the drink do the thinking for him. What the drink thought was that it wanted more of itself. Chosaku could see no reason not to oblige it.
We'll have to talk to him about it when he comes home for the summer. If not sooner. Sooner sounded good. Perhaps they could arrange something. The more he considered this (and it wasn't really thinking, so it didn't count) the more he liked it. There would be a school trip at some point, wouldn't there? He could persuade Principal Samejima that a suitable location for the trip would be the Manjoume headquarters.
"I think I have an idea," he said, sipping more at the drink before he started to explain things to Shoji. It was a good idea, he was certain of it. Shoji listened, his own gaze befuddled slightly by the liquor, but his mind still working.
"That might be a good idea," he said after a few moments. "But I think I have a better one. A lot better." He smiled a bit, and there was something a touch cruel in it. Chosaku didn't mind; one had to be cruel to get ahead in politics, finance, or dueling. If Jun didn't realize that just yet, then he would soon.
"What is it?" Chosaku looked back at the liquor cabinet. Perhaps a trip or two to France would be workable in the near future. He wanted to restock, and while importing it did cost a bit, it would be well worth it.
Shoji didn't reply right away. He was too busy getting himself a fresh drink. They were going to need the time to recover from their hangovers, Chosaku realized. This was something else that was Jun's fault. If he hadn't lost, they would be celebrating his victory instead.
"I think we should try to buy Duel Academia," Shoji said at last, turning around with his new drink in his hand. Chosaku blinked a few times, frowning some.
"Did you just say we should try to buy Duel Academia?" He didn't think he was so drunk that he was hearing things. It had been known to happen, though, so he wasn't going to write it off just yet.
Shoji nodded briefly. "If it weren't for him attending there, then none of this would have happened. They permit people like that Osiris Red who beat Jun in there. We can run it much better than the current administration." He stared down into his drink. "I'm quite certain we have more than enough kept back to be able to afford any sort of asking price."
"Do you have anything in mind for when we own it?" The idea had taken quick root into Chosaku's mind, and he was more than ready to presume that it had already happened.
"We can get rid of those Red students for one," Shoji declared. "Especially that one. After Jun beats him, using our deck." That made perfectly sense to Chosaku.
"What about the Ras?" The fact Jun had lost to one of those, especially one who was supposed to be the top of his class, didn't rankle quiet so much as the two losses to the Red student did. Even Jun, he supposed, could have a bad day, and it was probably all due to that Red regardless, throwing Jun off of his game.
Shoji considered. "We'll let some of them stay. The ones who can be upgraded to Obelisk. But as for the rest of them…" He smiled slyly, and Chosaku chuckled.
It would take some time to organize everything. Perhaps a few months. But that would not be much of a problem. Chosaku drank again. This little bit of an insult to the Manjoume family would not be forgiven or forgotten any time soon. Surely Kaiba Seto would be willing to sell. He didn't even visit the place.
Soon, it would all be theirs.
To Be Continued
